Dark Sector

Review
PS3

Dark Sector is a first person shooter that lands you in the role of `Hayden Tenno' a secret, yet elite, agent operative sent out into the Eastern Bloc in the wake of the Cold War. Unfortunately this mission seems to have been a one way trip as a dark secret has been swept under the old Cold War rug. You are attacked by a mysterious enemy having neutralised a diseased member of previously deployed unit. However, death does not come and you awaken alone and altered. Whatever the mysterious assailant has infected you with, it has mutated to give you inhuman skills and abilities. Throughout the game these powers get stronger and Tenno must learn to assimilate them, not only to survive, but to avenge his abandoning.

You start with a brief yet good looking cut scene and move into a prologue that lets you get to grips with the controls. The learning curve is just about right, with the basics given in prompts and other features (such as picking up ammo and reloading) left to you to work out for yourself. Learning by doing as they say. The controls, specifically the camera and first person, over-the-shoulder view initially seem overly sensitive but you will quickly get to grips with this and once you have done, the controls seem pretty tight and smooth. A plus, in my eyes at least, is that the initial cut scene doesn't explain every single aspect of what is going on. Quite the opposite, you are not treated like a recently lobotomised squirrel instead you are left to figure out what is going on and therefore the plot is left to develop like any decent feature film, giving you more of a chance of being hooked.

Once infected you are left to fend off many a mutated creature and random Russian soldiers. (Pesky Russians, its always them.) Dark Sector is brilliantly gory and thoroughly deserving of its 18+ rating. The main reason for this resolves around the source of your attack. Once infected, your primary weapon is the `Glaive', a three pronged boomerang type blade which is razor sharp. The camera zooms in on the Glaive as soon as it is thrown which allows you to control the direction of its attack as it lops of heads, limbs, extremities and anything else it finds in its path. What follows is bloody, very bloody. However, its not all good. The Glaive is controlled by the PS3 pad motion sensor, which is inaccurate at best. This can be quite frustrating at best and completely anger inducing annoying at worst. Worst still, I persevered with this before realising after a good couple of hours in that you could change this control to the d-pad. That pretty much hacked me off too. You might say that is my own fault for not paying attention to detail. don't. Whilst you have a vast area of weaponry to choose from, I can't see any reason to use them once in possession of the Glaive. This weaponry can only be carried in small numbers, say two guns and a handful of grenades, which may be realistic but certainly isn't fun.

The graphics and sound are good and definitely what we have come to expect from the PS3 as a rule. The title looks well and the sounds & score add to the suspense of the game, but nothing here is ground breaking or new. You can apply this to the game-play as well. This is, in general, a run of the mill first person suspense shooter, with a cool boomerang knife weapon thrown in to mix things up a little within a standard plot structure that features inhuman creatures and those damn pesky Russians.

7.5 out of 10

Harris

Army of Two does exactly what it says on the tin. You are part of a two-man cell acting on behalf of the private sector military, guns for hire if you will. You begin the title as you finish your army career in the US Rangers before being picked up by the corporate militia as mercenaries available to the highest bidder. You can choose to play as either Tyson Rios or Elliott Salem as you are sent to many of the World's hotspots to search and destroy or rescue targets. It soon appears that plans are afoot to discredit the armed forces in order for private security firms to provide protection to the world. This mirrors certain real world accusations, `Blackwater' immediately springs to mind and it is to EA's credit that they create such a topical and believable storyline.

Continue reading: Army of Two - Review PS3, Ea Games

Burnout: Paradise
Review PS3

In Burnout Paradise we see an evolutionary step on the Burnout franchise. In place of your standard linear pre defined races, we see `Paradise City', a sprawling urban conurbation just waiting for you to explore it. Think Grand Theft Auto if it was solely about the cars and not the random maiming.

Rather than collecting medals are we saw in previous Burnout titles, the aim of the game is to complete various tasks in order to build up your current driving license before advancing to the next license in due course. Paradise City itself is split up into eight separate sectors of roads, shortcuts, underpasses, bridges and rail tracks and could take a fair while to explore in its entirety. This said, it is worth doing as if you enter into a task or struggle to read the map properly, it is quite easy to make a wrong turning or end of embedded in bridge support. Task over. Your tasks will vary from `Showtime' [a variation of `Crash Mode' from previous Burnout incarnations] which entails you stringing together stunts, jumps and crashes over any course you find and can blast your way through; `Marked Man' [See a variation of Pursuit mode previously] where you attempt to get from point 'a' to point `b' whilst other vehicles do their utmost to derail you; standard races; `Road rage' see you attempting to create as much carnage as possible before your own vehicle and a few others too. You are also responsible for unlocking your own new vehicles, not in the normal manner via attaining a certain level of competition, but by seeing the car drive past you, chasing it and destroying it. This is thoroughly fun and has you changing from wandering nomad to bloodthirsty predator in a split second. If you are one crash away from wiping out or out of nitro, then pop into the repair shop or gas station for a tune up-slash-refill which will have you as good as new.

So how well do the in-games fit into the free roaming environment? Being hyper critical and a fan of previous Burnout titles, whilst the level of destruction is satisfying you don't get the multi car pile ups that you used to get particularly in Crash mode. The pile ups are mainly gone but the linking of stunts and crashes is highly appealing. Maybe I am being slightly nostalgic then, but perhaps there was room for both? On top of this, because the city is theoretically split into three vertical levels [the top level may include highways, bridges, etc whilst the middle tier may be street level, whilst the lower tier could be subways or the like] it can be rather difficult to make head-nor-tail of the map, specifically at high speed. Speaking of high speed, we are talking `uber' velocity with 60 frames per second which is almost flawlessly incorporated into online gaming as well. Having digressed, my last beef is that you will have to wait for any event you start to finish before you can restart it again. This can be particularly frustrating id you wipe out half way through a race meaning that you have little to no chance of winning and you have to travel a couple of miles back to the start line.

Negatives aside, let's have some more things to be positive about. Though about as a appealing as all DJ's, Paradise City's `DJ Attomica' joins you on your car stereo, however in a nice change from the norm he actually gives you some useful hints on gameplay and finding your way around. The online facility is excellent not only because it maintain the frame-rate, not because you can custom race a fair few of your friends online, not because you can also compare stats with your mate, but mainly because the integration of your off-line game and online game is seamless. If you turn on your t'internet connection the stats and links to `friends' online is automatic. As the game is free-roaming, you can challenge and be challenged at any time.

Burnout Paradise has a raw intensity to it that will get your pulse racing, the graphics are top notch and the selection of tunes for your radio, are not annoying as in similar titles. For these reasons as well as for all those mentioned earlier, Burnout Paradise makes it into the slowly growing bang of `must have' PS3 titles.

8.5 out of 10

Harris

FIFA 08
Review PS3

Continue reading: FIFA 08 Review PS3

NBA Street Homecourt
Review PS3
EA Sports

Continue reading: NBA Street Homecourt, Review PS3, EA Sports

Ridge Racer 7
Review Platstation 3

The last version of the Ridge Racer series I played was the PSP version and I thoroughly enjoyed it. However, the last release of Ridge Racer was version 6 which was released on the Xbox 360. Playstation 3 has also been released (as are all Sony consoles) with a new version of Ridge Racer. The drift style of racing is unique to the series, while everyone else strives for realistic handling you can always depend on Ridge Racer for an authentic and fun arcade experience.

It's worth mentioning from the start that most of the tracks in Ridge Racer 7 are the same as those in version 6 on the 360. But I doubt this will cause much of a problem for the Sony faithful as anyone looking to buy this game will have held out for the PS3 or bought both consoles, but not necessarily bought the 360 version of the game and held out for the PS3 version. Whatever the case Ridge Racer 7 has quite a few immediately noticeable changes such as slipstreaming and car customisation which will give players of Ridge Racer 6 something new, but you may get a feeling of déjà vu. For everyone else it's a great new addition to the Ridge Racer family.

If for some reason you have never played Ridge Racer before you may find the handling completely uncontrollable or very old fashioned as the game insists on a certain style of driving, take your foot off the gas, turn into the corner, put your foot on the gas and drift through the corner. If you make the slightest mistake in timing or have your car pointing slightly out of direction on the way out of the corner you are likely to end in a spin or just find yourself sliding hopelessly all over the track.

Cars come in a number of different guises. For the beginner there are the cars with mild drift, they are pretty well stuck to the road and don't take too much control to get them back on the straight and narrow. On the other end of the scale are the dynamic drift cars which turn in incredibly quickly and require more skill to bring the car out of the slide. These cars can even catch out the best of Ridge Racer drivers at times.

Drifting has a very good side effect, so long as you drift at high speed your boost meter will start to fill up. There are three levels of boost, you can choose to use the boost straight away or save up for a double or triple. Ridge Racer 7's new trick is slip streaming which is very effective and can help you spread out those boosts. To slip stream you have to get right behind another car (this can be from quite a distance initially) you will start to accelerate faster and get a higher top speed. The closer you get to the car in front of you, the more effective the slip stream becomes and the faster you will go.

A new addition to Ridge Racer 7 is the customisation of cars. Now you can take your car and buy a whole host of extras to improve its performance. Body kits make your car look good, engine upgrades increase top speed, nitrous upgrades changes the way your nitrous meter works. Other upgrades that relate to the cars handling such as tyres and suspension don't have such an effect and can be left out.

The Ridge State Gran Prix is the main mode. Here you will have to try out for a team. First you will be offered a number of try outs, then go for the one you would most like to drive for and try to finish first. Once accepted you will be given a car. Now you have to establish relationships with parts makers. To do this you need you take part in the races and start winning events, as you progress you will unlock races that will unlock the ability to buy new car parts. Then you need to start trying to use a specific maker's parts and earn points with them. These points can be used for discount on the additional parts.

In usual Ridge Racer fashion the number of tracks available is fairly limited, but by Ridge Racer standards it's pretty good at 21. To stretch the number all tracks are available in reverse which is a given for Ridge Racer. The real longevity comes with the online game which supports up to 14 players.

Graphically Ridge Racer isn't a slouch by any means but it is best viewed in HD, where as MotorStorm looks fantastic in both standard and hi def formats. You can expect a similar look to Ridge Racer 6 on the 360 except the PS3's graphics are sharper and clearer. Best view in the house is the in car view, the worst is probably the replay as you see cars move in an unnatural and awkward way around corners.

Ridge Racer 7 is another great addition to the family and the first "proper" racing game for the PS3. At the end of the day it is another Ridge Racer that has been overhauled for another console release, it's not perfect but it is fun and a great pick up and play game. A great formula and surely the reason it has kept going for all these years.

8 out of 10

MotorStorm
Review Playstation 3

Paris Dakar meets Mad Max meets Demolition Derby is probably the best way to describe what MotorStorm is all about. If you don't know anything about the Paris Dakar you should look it up now. In a nut shell it's a whole variety of vehicles ranging in size from a motor bike to gargantuan trucks tearing through the dessert attempting to cross the finish line first.

Certainly one of the most anticipated releases for the Sony Playstation 3 probably in no small part due to the way it looks. It demonstrates what the PS3 is capable of even in these early days of development and I have to say it looks awesome, certainly the best next generation game I have seen graphically.

MotorStorm's concept is a great number of different types of vehicles racing around huge areas of dessert with a spattering of dirt and mud. All the tracks feature a multitude of different routes; some favour the larger vehicles while others favour the smaller vehicles like the bikes and ATV's. In simple terms, higher ground is good for the smaller vehicles which cope best with fairly smooth ground and large jumps and drops, while the lowest and usually muddiest routes favour the largest vehicles.

The ability to finely tune the route you take for your vehicle adds another dimension to the racing. Generally its easier to use the larger vehicles to start with as they are best suited to the lowest areas of the course, you don't have to worry about falling off the edge of the road, whereas racing along a narrow ridge in a fast vehicle requires far more skill. You are not penalised heavily for falling off, you may just get slowed down by the mud, but at the next available opportunity you will be able to make your way up to higher ground again.

As if this wasn't enough to be dealing with you will have to negotiate your competitors as they try to ram you off the road. You've really got to stay clear of the big trucks that will act first and ask questions later. You have to be a bit more careful with the small more delicate cars and bikes, if you ram someone too hard you will not just make their vehicle a wreck, you will also wreck your own and risk turn into a huge fireball.

The last thing worth mentioning is the boost. MotorStorm deals with boost in a slightly different way to most games. The boost is always available, but if you boost too much and force the boost meter into the red you run a very high risk of blowing up your engine. There are sections of all tracks where the boost will be more advantageous than others, by the time you have been through the most technical areas of a track your boost meter will have dropped right back to normal. Of course there are some tracks where you would boost all the time, if you could.

MotorStorm is graphically the most impressive console game I have ever seen running. Usually when consoles are released the standard of graphics is pretty shabby, for a first effort MotorStorm lets you see what is possible on the PS3 and only makes you think of what games will be looking like 12 months down the road when programmers are more comfortable with the PS3 architecture.

However, MotorStorm is not without problems. The frame rate has a tendency to dip slightly when the action gets particularly crowded, this is probably why split screen racing have been omitted from the menu. You do get the kind of nasty texture appear or very occasionally a small black hole. This doesn't have an effect the game play at all, and any minor blemish is only visible for a fraction of a second.

The rest of the game looks stunning throughout. The vehicles have a massive amount of detail and even the drivers are extremely well detailed even though you don't see them most of the time, unless you select motor bike or ATV to use. Even more stunning than the vehicles themselves are the crashes and the way cars and bikes explode on impact with standing obstacles. Each crash and explosion is totally unique, but for me one the most amazing effects is the fire, it's so realistic in opaqueness, movement and colour. If you have a crash with less force you will see damage from bent axles, to deformed bumpers and chipped paint. By the end of the race your car will be hardly recognisable due to the huge amount of dirt collected on every inch of the bodywork.

While the tracks aren't quiet as exciting to look at as the vehicles they are impressive all the same. The background scenery is like a photographic masterpiece, but what makes the tracks so realistic are all the colourful lighting effects. When you drive through the mud you will leave tracks which will glisten in the sun light through the smog like dust storm left by the rest of the field. Wherever you look you will see something new and beautiful looking.

Sound is pretty good, personally I think they could have given the vehicles a slightly louder and rougher note but they sound great all the same. The smashing, crunching and booming noises are all very realistic and put you right in the action. Motorstorm features lots of heavy rock music from the likes or Nirvana, Slipknot, Wolfmother and Queens of the Stone Age.

For me MotorStorm was a great surprise, it looks far better than I ever thought it would, it plays far better than I expected and it's a great "pick up and play" game that we don't see enough of these days. If you want another game for your PS3 this definitely should be it if you haven't already got it, as in my opinion it is one of the must own games for the PS3 along with Resistance.

8 out of 10